214 Belies of Ancient Population on Oldbury Hill, Wilts. 



fifty feet. A bank and ditch intersect the area of the work, perhaps 

 the remains of a more ancient agger. This camp appears to have 

 been made use of as a place of residence as well as of defence, for 

 the labourers in digging for flints within its area throw up numerous 

 fragments of animal bones and rude pottery, the certain marks of 

 habitation. The form of this work is very irregular, humouring 

 the hill in its numerous sinuosities." 1 



Td this the Rev. A. C. Smith adds the following " The division 

 of the area by a bank and ditch running from north to south, to 

 which Sir R. Hoare alludes, is a singular feature in this camp, and j 

 separates the upper and larger portion on the east from the lower 

 and sloping part on the west ; the area of the western portion being 

 at a considerably lower elevation than the upper. The returned ' 

 banks at the entrance on the south-east, and the outworks masking 

 the entrance, are on the principles of modern fortifications, and would i 

 not disgrace the engineers who constructed Luxembourg and Metz. 

 The banks and ditches, too, on the least-defensible sides, notably on j 

 the east, are of very great size and strength, and must have rendered 

 the camp almost impregnable." 



As might have been expected from its commanding position, 

 Oldbury has been occupied as a stronghold by various successive \ 

 races ; and traces of Ancient Britons and Romans, as well as of j 

 more modern peoples, have been discovered. We propose to describe j 

 some of the antiquities ; and it is a pleasure to be able to add that I 

 most of the specimens found have been presented to the Wiltshire 

 Museum at Devizes. 



Three barrows have been examined within a few hundred yards 

 of the camp. In the round barrow, marked f. on the plan of Oldbury 

 here inserted (from Sir R. C. Hoare), the very fine funereal urn 

 was found which has been engraved and described in the Wiltshire 

 Magazine, vol. vi., 73. 8 It is now in the Museum of the Society. 



1 1 ' Ancient Wilts," II. 

 2 It has since been described and figured in 44 Archajologia," xliii., 334, by 

 Dr. Thurnam. He speaks of the ornamentation as being " entirely of the stippled 

 or punctured sort, made with a very fine pin, or with many pins or teeth inserted 

 comb-fashion, on the edge of a stick." 



